ANIMATION; 1hr 43min
VOICES BY: Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Ed O'Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell
Destiny and Dory size each other up
Short-term memory loss is a curse (remember Memento?), especially when, like blue tang Dory (valiantly voiced by DeGeneres), you're a small fish in a big sea, cast adrift by your amnesia. Set roughly a year after 2003's Finding Nemo and once again co-directed by Andrew Stanton (this time with Angus MacLane), Finding Dory takes the flutterbudget scatterbrain, with loyal clownfish Marlin (Brooks) and his son Nemo (Hayden Rolence) in tow, from the Great Barrier Reef to California in search of the parents she now recalls she has. They wash up at the Marine Life Institute, where grumbly octopus Hank (O'Neill), myopic shark Destiny (Olson) and beluga whale Bailey (Burrell) are roped into the wackadoodle quest.
Even when it's cacophonous and frantic, the animation is vibrant and bonkers all the way. (You know you're onto something when an octopus drives a getaway truck.). But Pixar's unbeatable edge has always been the loveable, identifiable characters that are the soul of its stories. So while Dory is more sweet-natured than thematically stunning, its full heart elevates a waterlogged chase flick to a search for belonging and a teensy blue tang from cutesy cartoon fish to fully-finned leading lady.
